Kenya: Electricity tariff rates static despite low rainfall

On Tuesday, the government of Kenya announced that it will not be increasing electricity tariff rates due to a lack of rainfall affecting its hydropower dams as the geothermal steam plants are generating sufficient power to meet demand.

The East African region has plans to expand its current generation capacity of 2,152MW to 5,00MW by 2017, which will reduce electricity costs and the total cost of business, according to Reuters.

Dam levels remain sufficient as the geothermal production has been adequate enough to offset the need for hydropower energy, accounting for an estimated 52% of power generation, said Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum Davis Chirchir.

Chirchir added that Kenya will not resort to diesel power as a means of back-up power.

“The hydros are performing very well. We are not overdrawing the water because we have significant amount of geothermal,” Chirchir told media.

Hydroelectric power in Kenya

Kenya’s Olkaria geothermal power is in final phase of development

Kenya’s current installed hydropower capacity is 820MW and geothermal is 585MW.

With demand exceeding supply, the government has the objective of increasing grid connectivity from 32% to 75-80% within the next five years.

In February 2015, the last phase of the Kenya Electricity Generating Company’s (KenGen) geothermal power plant Olkaria I Unit 4 and 5 was commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

The geothermal plant will have the capacity to generate 280MW of power and according to the Ministry of Energy Kenya has enough geothermal power to generate 10,000MW of power.

Nicolette Pombo-van Zyl has been working in the African power, energy and water sectors since 2011, first with African Utility Week and now as the Editor of ESI Africa. She is also an Advisory Board member of the Global and African Power & Energy Elites publications. With her passion for sustainable business and placing African countries on the international stage, Nicolette takes a keen interest in current affairs and technology trends.